a few days ago, president barack obama put his hand on the lincoln and martin luther king bible and took the oath of office almost 150 years since the emancipation population went into effect. in his inaugural speech, he talked about the country's historic and continuing march for greater freedom. we at the "washington monthly" found it appropriate to devote the subjects to the race, history, and the condition of minorities in america today. president obama, as measured by his november vote totals retains, the support of the americans of color, neither he nor the country have talked about much of race. he mentioned race fewer times in his first two years than any democrat resident since 1961. when he did talk about race, it often provoked a fierce backlash as when he said last year that if he had a son, he would look like trayvon martin, the young man who was killed tragically in florida. tremendous backlash to that. he went silent again on issues of issue. there has been generally a politically imposed code of silence around this president and around the country, making it difficult for